Abstract
ABSTRACT With four genera and some 330 extant species, the Trogidae are a small group of scarabaeoid beetles that feed on hard keratinous tissue. Here, the first hide beetle from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber, Kresnikus beynoni gen. et sp. nov., is described and illustrated, representing the first trogid preserved in fossilised resin. A new subfamily, Kresnikinae subfam. nov., is erected for the unusual species, characterised by frons and clypeus completely fused, a deflexed anteromedial portion of the frontoclypeal region, clypeus with a straight anterior margin, subtriangular scutellum, pronotum and elytra with simple setae, mesocoxal cavities separated by a rounded metaventrite process, metatibial spurs as long as the first metatarsal segment, and metatarsi sparsely pubescent. Kresnikus beynoni gen. et sp. nov. shows several seemingly ancestral characters including separated mesocoxae and small body size, hinting at a Gondwanian origin of hide beetles. The fossil record of the family Trogidae is reviewed and an annotated checklist of fossil taxa is provided.
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